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  • The billion standard

    Context

    India has crossed the target of a billion monthly digital payments. Now, to a billion transactions a day.

    The story of payment revolution and financial inclusion in India

    • Progress on the financial inclusion: India was long a financially excluded nation –only 17 per cent of Indians had a bank account in 2011.
      • 50 more years estimate: The World Bank suggests it would have taken 50 more years for 80 per cent of Indians to get a bank account at the pre-2011 speed.
      • Yet, we reached that milestone in 2018.
      • How? A magical combination of
      • Political will (Jan Dhana Yojana and Aadhaar embedding).
      • A proactive central bank (creating a non-profit market participant entity and levelling the playing field between non-banks and banks).
      • And a technology stack with three layers (identity, payments, and data).
    • The rise of UPI
      • The swift rise in use: The digital payment transactions on the Universal Payment Interface (UPI) platform rising from 0.1 million in October 2016 to 1.3 billion in January 2020.
      • Result of working together: This represents the magic of entrepreneurs, nonprofits and policymakers working together.
      • And gives us a new target — a billion transactions a day.
    • India’s Payment revolution
      • What are the components of the payment revolution: India’s payment revolution comes from-
      • A clear vision: Shifting the system from low volume, high value, and high cost to high volume, low value, low cost.
      • A clear strategy: Regulated and unregulated private players innovating on top of public infrastructure.
      • And trade-offs balanced by design: Regulation vs innovation, privacy vs personalisation, and ease-of-use vs fraud prevention.
    • What consumers wanted?
      • Consumers wanted a payment experience that was mobile-first, low-cost, 24/7, instant, convenient, interoperable, fintech friendly, inside banking, and safe.
    • Answers lies in UPI.
      • What did UPI achieve?
      • Interoperability: UPI created interoperability between all sources and recipients of funds -consumers, businesses, fintechs, wallets, 140 member banks.
      • Instant settlement: UPI settles instantly inside the central bank in fiat money -state-issued money declared by the sovereign to be legal tender.
      • Blunted data monopolies: Big tech firms have strong autonomy but weak fiduciary responsibilities over customer data, it was taken care of by UPI.

    5 Policy lessons from the success of UPI

    • First- how the India stack: Interconnected yet independent platforms or open APIs — are a public good that-
      • Lowers costs, spur innovation and blunts the natural digital winner-takes-all.
      • Replication in other areas: Replicating this in education, healthcare, and government services are likely to be a harbinger of large scale multi-domain collaborative innovation.
    • Second-collaboration: Collaboration can create ecosystems that overcome the birth defects of its constituents–
      • The execution deficit of government, the trust deficit of private companies, and the scale deficit of nonprofits.
    • Third-policy intervention: Complementary policy interventions are important.
      • Demonetisation and GST are changing the stories that firms and individuals tell themselves around cash and informality.
    • Fourth-human capital and diversity matter: This revolution needed career bureaucrats to partner with academics, tech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, global giants and private firms.
    • The final lesson-Western model is not needed always: India doesn’t need to be Western or Chinese to be modern. If our policymakers had copied Alipay or US banks, we wouldn’t have leapfrogged their birth defects.

    Way forward

    • Fix the deadline: The central government must deadline digitising all its payments.
    • RBI implement 100+ action items: The RBI must implement the 100-plus action items arising from its own Vision 2021 document and the Nandan Nilekani Committee for Deepening Digital Payments.
    • UPI for inward remittances: RBI must also make UPI and RuPay fit for use in our $70 billion inward remittances that currently come through exploitative financial institutions which don’t have clients but hostages.
    • Replication of UPI in bank credit: The RBI must replicate the core design of UPI — fierce but sustainable private and public competition in bank credit-
      • Our 50 per cent credit-to -GDP ratio is one of the reasons India is poor.
      • China’s 300 per cent is the wrong number, but reaching the OECD average of 100 per cent needs the RBI to do many things-
      • Raising its human capital and technology game in regulation and supervision.
      • Catalysing an ecosystem for lending against the rapidly expanding digital exhaust of small firms and individuals.
      • Issuing more private bank licences, facilitating management changes in old private banks with market caps that signal questions about book value, and shepherding governance and human capital revolution at PSU banks.

    Conclusion

    Converting the collective independence our citizens got in 1947 to individual freedom surely involved universal financial inclusion. The gap between this aspiration and reality was not a lie but a disappointment because our capital got handicapped without labour and our labour got handicapped without capital. Change has begun -the RBI, the finance ministry, and many individuals deserve our gratitude and dues for a billion digital payments a month. We now ask you for a billion digital payments a day.

  • Explained: Practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

     

    Every year, February 6 is observed as the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).  As per the WHO, globally, over 200 million girls alive today have suffered FGM in over 30 countries.

    Female Genital Mutilation

    • FGM is the name given to procedures that involve altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical or cultural reasons.
    • It is recognised internationally as a violation of human rights and the health and integrity of girls and women.
    • Most girls and women who have undergone FGM live in sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab States, but it is also practiced in some countries in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
    • According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), while the exact origins of the practice remain unclear, it seems to have predated Christianity and Islam.
    • It says that some Egyptian mummies display characteristics of FGM.
    • Significantly, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus has claimed that in the fifth century BC, the Phoenicians, the Hittites and the Ethiopians practised circumcision.

    Why is Female Genital Mutilation practiced?

    • Depending on the region, there can be various reasons why FGM is performed. The UNFPA has categorised the reasons into five categories —
    1. psycho-sexual reasons (when FGM is carried out as a way to control women’s sexuality, “which is sometimes said to be insatiable if parts of the genitalia, especially the clitoris, are not removed);
    2. sociological or cultural reasons (when FGM is seen as part of a girl’s initiation into womanhood and an intrinsic part of a community’s cultural heritage);
    3. hygiene and aesthetic reasons (this may be the reason for those communities that consider the external female genitalia as ugly and dirty);
    4. religious reasons (the UNFPA maintains that while FGM is not endorsed by Christianity or Islam, “supposed” religious doctrines may be used to justify the practice);
    5. socio-economic factors (in some communities FGM is a pre-requisite for marriage, especially in those communities where women are dependent on men economically).
    • Other reasons cited by the WHO include- an attempt to ensure women’s premarital virginity since FGM is believed to reduce libido,  and therefore believed to help her resist extramarital sexual acts.
    • FGM may also be associated with cultural ideals of feminity and modesty.

    Economic cost of FGM

    • Beyond the immense psychological trauma it entails, FGM imposes large financial costs and loss of life.
    • In 2018, a study on FGM in India said that the practice was up to 75 per cent across the Bohra Muslim community.
    • The economic costs of treating health complications arising out of FGM amount to roughly $1.4 billion for 2018 for 27 countries where FGM is performed.
    • If the prevalence remains the same, the amount is expected to rise up to $2.3 billion by 2047.

    FGM in India

    • According to the aforementioned study, the reasons for FGM referred to as “Khafd” in India include continuing an old traditional practice, adhering to religious edicts, controlling women’s sexuality and abiding by the rules stated by the religious clergy.
    • It also states that the issue first rose to prominence in India because of two international legal cases on FGM against practising Bohras in Australia and the US.
    • In 2018, a bench of then CJI Dipak Misra referred a petition seeking a ban on FGM among Dawoodi Bohra girls to a five-judge Constitution Bench.
    • The Dawoodi Bohra community, on the other hand, maintained that the practice should be allowed since the Constitution grants religious freedom under Article 25.

    For detailed health risks associated with FGM, navigate to the page:

    Health hazards of FGM

  • “Vivad se Vishwas” Scheme

    The government has introduced The Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Bill, 2020.

    Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Bill

    • In essence, the Bill is aimed at resolving direct tax-related disputes in a speedy manner.
    • In the last budget, Sabka Vishwas Scheme was brought in to reduce litigation in indirect taxes. It resulted in settling over 1,89,000 cases.
    • The Vivad se Vishwas Scheme is to do for direct tax-related disputes exactly what Sabka Vishwas did for indirect tax-related disputes.

    Why need such a scheme?

    • At present, there are as many as 4,83,000 direct tax cases pending in various appellate forums i.e. Commissioner (Appeals), ITAT, High Court and Supreme Court.
    • The idea behind the scheme is to reduce litigation in the direct tax arena.

    What are the specifics of the scheme?

    • A taxpayer would be required to pay only the amount of the disputed taxes and will get a complete waiver of interest and penalty provided he pays by 31st March 2020.
    • Those who avail this scheme after 31st March 2020 will have to pay some additional amount.
    • However, the scheme will remain open only till June 30, 2020. The scheme also applies to all case appeals that are pending at any level.

    How much money is at stake?

    • According to reports, over Rs 9 lakh crore worth of direct tax disputes are pending in the courts.
    • The government hopes to recover a big chunk of this in a swift and simple way, while offering the taxpayers the relief of not having to fight the case endlessly.
    • For a government that is staring at a big shortfall in revenues, especially tax revenues, the scheme makes a lot of sense.

    What was the response to the Sabka Vishwas scheme?

    • At last count, the government expected to have raised Rs 39,500 crore from the Sabka Vishwas scheme, which was only about indirect tax disputes.
    • The amnesty window for Sabka Vishwas closed on January 15 and close to 1.90 lakh crore applications, in relation to taxes worth Rs 90,000 crore was received.
    • One of the standout successes of this scheme was Mondelez India Foods Pvt Ltd (which was earlier known as Cadbury India) settled one of its most controversial tax disputes.
    • The firm was accused of evading taxes to the tune of Rs 580 crore (excluding taxes and penalties). In the end, Mondelez paid Rs 439 crore on January 20 under the amnesty scheme.

    Criticisms of the Bill

    • The bill led to an uproar in Parliament.
    • The opposition criticised the Bill first for the use of Hindi words in its name, arguing that this was government’s way to impose Hindi on the non-Hindi speakers.
    • They also argued that the Bill treats honest and dishonest people equally.

  • [pib] National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS)

     

    The NMMSS has helped to reduce the drop-out rate at the secondary and senior secondary classes, informed Union HRD Minister.

    National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme

    • The Centrally Sponsored Scheme NMMSS was launched in May, 2008.
    • The objective of the scheme is to award scholarships to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their drop out at class VIII and encourage them to continue the study at secondary stage.
    • Under the Scheme one lakh fresh scholarships @ of Rs.12000/- per annum per student are awarded to selected students of class IX every year and their continuation/renewal  in classes X to XII for study in a State Government, Government-aided and Local body schools.
    • The selection of students for award of scholarships under the scheme is made through an examination conducted by the States/UTs Governments.

    Progress of the scheme

    • As on date approx 16.93 lakh scholarships have been sanctioned to the Students across the country.
    • Heads of all the institutions disclosed that the NMMS Scheme has reduced the drop-out rate at the secondary and senior secondary classes, particularly from Classes VIII to XII.

  • [pib] Lucknow Declaration

    The first India-Africa Defence Ministers’ Conclave held in Lucknow has adopted the Lucknow Declaration.

    India-Africa Framework for Strategic Cooperation

    The declaration:

    • Acknowledges contribution of Indian defence forces in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations in Africa.
    • It appreciates initiation of Africa India Field Training Exercises with the first ever AFINDEX in March 2019 and agree that it will further strengthen cooperation in defence preparedness and security.
    • The vision is to achieve ‘a conflict-free Africa, prevent genocide, make peace a reality for all and rid the continent of wars, violent conflicts, human rights violations, and humanitarian disasters.
    • It call for deeper cooperation in the domain of defence industry including through investment, joint ventures in defence equipment software, digital defence, research & development etc.
    • It recognizes the common security challenges such as terrorism and extremism, piracy, organised crime including human trafficking, drug trafficking, weapon smuggling and others.
    • The members endorsed initiatives such as African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), Silence The Guns in Africa and Agenda 2063.
    • It calls for strengthening the UN Counter-Terrorism mechanisms and to ensure strict compliance with the UN Security Council sanctions regime on terrorism.
    • It urged the international community to envisage the adoption of Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism in the UNGA.
    • The members recognized the importance of the oceans and seas to the livelihoods of our peoples and that Maritime security is a pre-requisite for the development of Blue or Ocean economy.
    • It sought to increase cooperation in securing sea lines of communication, preventing maritime crimes, disaster, piracy, illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing through sharing of information and surveillance.

  • [pib] National Judicial Pay Commission

    The Second National Judicial Pay Commission has filed its report covering the subject of Pay, Pension and Allowances in the Supreme Court.

    Second National Judicial Pay Commission

    • The Commission is headed by former Supreme Court judge P V Reddy.
    • It was set up on the directions of the apex court in May 2017 during the hearing of the All India Judges Association case.

    Key recommendations

    1) Pay

    • It has recommended the adoption of Pay Matrix which has been drawn up by applying the multiplier of 2.81 to the existing pay, commensurate with the percentage of increase of pay of High Court Judges.
    • The highest pay which a District Judge (STS) will get, is Rs.2,24,100/-.

    2)  Pension

    • Pension at 50% of last drawn pay worked out on the basis of proposed revised pay scales is recommended w. e. f. 1-1-2016. The family pension will be 30% of the last drawn pay.
    • Recommendation has been made to discontinue the New Pension Scheme (NPS) which is being applied to those entering service during or after 2004. The old pension system, which is more beneficial to be revived.

    3) Allowances

    • The existing allowances have been suitably increased and certain new features have been added. However, the CCA is proposed to be discontinued.
    • Certain new allowances viz. children education allowance, home orderly allowance, transport allowance in lieu of pool car facility, has been proposed.

  • Euthermia: the anomaly of human body temperature

     

    Euthermia refers to normal body temperature. The thermometer reading of 98.6°F has been a gold standard for a century and a half, ever since a German doctor laid it down as the “normal” body temperature.  A new research has found that body temperatures have, in fact, been declining over the last two centuries.

    Why we follow 98.6°F?

    • In 1851, Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich pioneered the use of the clinical thermometer.
    • It was a rod a foot long, which he would stick under the armpits of patients at the hospital attached with Leipzig University, and then wait for 15 minutes (some accounts say 20 minutes) for the temperature to register.
    • He took over a million measurements of 25,000 patients, and published his findings in a book in 1868, in which he concluded that the average human body temperature is 98.6°F.
    • Most modern scientists feel Wunderlich’s experiments were flawed, and his equipment inaccurate.
    • Another study concluded that the average human body temperature is closer to 98.2°F, and suggested that the 98.6°F benchmark be discarded.

    The body is cooler

    • The Stanford University the researchers confirmed some known trends — body temperature is higher in younger people, in women, in larger bodies and at later times of the day.
    • Additionally, they found that the bodies of men born in the early to mid-1990s is on average 1.06°F cooler than those of men born in the early 1800s.
    • And the body temperature of women born in the early to mid-1990s is on average 0.58°F lower than that of women born in the 1890s.
    • The calculations from the research correspond to a decrease in body temperature of 0.05°F every decade.

    Why there’s decrease in body temperature?

    • The researchers have proposed that the decrease in body temperature is the result of changes in the environment over the past 200 years, which have in turn driven physiological changes.
    • The decrease in average body temperature in the US, they said, could be explained by a reduction in metabolic rate, or the amount of energy being used.
    • The environment that we’re living in has changed, including the temperature in our homes, our contact with microorganisms and the food that we have access to.
    • Actually the human body is changing physiologically.

    So what’s the normal temperature?

    • The strong influences of age, time of day, and genders determine the healthy body temperature.

  • 7th February 2020| Daily Answer Writing Enhancement

    Important Announcement: In the month of February, we will be covering UPSC Mains GS questions of 2019. This will give you real time experience of attempting GS questions of UPSC Mains.

     

    Question 1)

    Discuss the causes of depletion of mangroves and explain their importance in maintaining coastal ecology. (10 Marks)

    Question 2)

    What can France learn from the Indian Constitution’s approach to secularism? (10 Marks)

    Question 3)

    How was India benefitted from the contributions of Sir M.Visvesvaraya and Dr M. S. Swaminathan in the fields of water engineering and agricultural science respectively? (10 Marks)

    Question 4)

    What is meant by the term ‘constitutional morality’? How does one uphold constitutional morality? (10 marks)

    Reviews will be provided in a week. (In the order of submission- First come first serve basis). In case the answer is submitted late the review period may get extended to two weeks.

    *In case your answer is not reviewed in a week, reply to your answer saying *NOT CHECKED*. If Parth Sir’s tag is available then tag him.

    For the philosophy of AWE and payment, check  here: Click2Join

  • [op-ed of the day] Amendments to Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act are a mixed bag

    Context

    The Union Cabinet’s approval of the amended Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Bill 2020 was reported on January 29. This amendment was long due and has made some anticipated changes demanded by women’s groups and courts, including the Supreme Court.

    Why the amendment was necessitated?

    • Abortion (unsafe) accounts for almost 10 per cent of maternal deaths in India.
    • No provision to avoid unsafe abortion: The amended Act doesn’t have any new substantial provisions to avoid unsafe abortions.
      • The right to safe abortion (at least till 12 weeks, when it is safer) would have made the state responsible to provide safe abortion services.
    • Reduce the burden on judiciary: The proposed amendments will definitely reduce the burden on the judiciary, especially given the plethora of cases seeking permission for abortion beyond the prescribed duration of 20 weeks.
    • Two types of Court cases: The court cases are broadly two types.
      • The first group of cases: These are pregnancies that extend beyond 20 weeks of gestation as a result of rape, incest or of minor women.
      • The new Act rightly addresses these by extending prescribed period abortion to 24 weeks.
      • However, such cases form a minuscule proportion of the total number. For such cases, even the 24-week cap can be done away with, provided the abortions can be safely done.
      • The second group of cases
      • These are of pregnancies that become unwanted after congenital foetal anomalies are found upon testing.
      • With advancements in prenatal foetal screening/diagnostic technologies, more such cases are knocking at the doors of courts.
      • Marginal interval under the current act: Anomalies detected at 17-20 weeks provide only a marginal interval to conduct an abortion under the current Act.
      • The extension to 24 weeks seems to give cover to these cases for abortion services, reducing the burden on courts.

    How the law could be misused?

    • Possibility of using any anomaly as a ground for abortion: The amendments have opened up the possibility for any congenital anomaly to be used as grounds for abortion.
      • Anomalies which are incompatible with life provide grounds for access to abortion at any time during pregnancy -not just 24 weeks of gestation-as long as the woman desires it and it doesn’t endanger her health.
      • But with advancements in diagnostic technologies, more anomalies will be detected, including those which are compatible with life.
    • Social acceptability and anomaly: What constitutes an anomaly changes depending on what is considered socially desirable.
      • Issue of raising children with disability: Technology-aided detection of “undesirability” could now find social support, as has been the case with female foetuses.
      • This raises concerns that raising children with disability, especially in the absence of state support and poor social attitudes, could go down a similar path.

    The risk to the life of women

    • Abortion beyond 12 weeks carries serious health risks.
      • 12 weeks provision under current law: Current law requires the expert opinion of two registered medical practitioners for the abortion beyond 12 weeks.
        • Extending the limit to 20 weeks and risk involved: 12-week requirement has been delayed till 20 weeks, though the physiology of pregnancy and risks associated with procedures for second-trimester abortions haven’t changed significantly.
        • Possibility of more complications: Without the strengthening of public services, easing second-trimester abortions between 12-20 weeks opens the possibilities of more complications and endangers the life of the woman.

    Conclusion

    With congenital anomalies as a ground for abortion, the eugenic mindset of having socially desirable children could push more women into risky late abortions. The approach of medical boards advising courts in cases of late abortions under this Act will be critical to balancing women’s right to choose with risk to the woman and the motives for abortion. The rules framed under the Act must address this in no uncertain terms.

     

     

  • 6th February 2020 | Prelims Daily with Previous Year Questions

    [WpProQuiz 358]

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